The National Park Service says scientists are trying to discover the cause of death of a whale calf belonging to "one of the rarest marine mammals" on earth after it was found stranded on a beach on North Carolina's Outer Banks.
Biologists performed a necropsy on the North Atlantic right whale calf and took DNA samples Saturday. The National Park Service at Cape Lookout National Seashore posted news of the whale's death on its .
Right whales are critically endangered. The park service says only about 360 of the animals are still alive and about five or six calves are born each year.
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